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4.) On his biggest and underrated strength as a coach: "One of his biggest strengths is handling the team, handling the locker room and the most underrated strength that Woody has not gotten credit for is his consistency. You're not going to see the lineup change every other day, you're not going to see tinkering with the lineup, the rotations are going to be the same and he's not going to do things different from one night to the next.

Shortly after he returned from China and signed with the Knicks, J.R. Smith told Chris Tomasson of FOX Sports Florida that he anticipated picking up his second-year player option and remaining with the Knicks. I was a little skeptical at the time, since the option will only be worth about $2.5MM, and Smith should easily be able to land a longer and larger deal on the open market.

So it's not a huge surprise to see Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld reporting that Smith is expected to turn down his option for 2012/13. According to Kennedy, Smith will seek a multiyear deal, with the Timberwolves, Clippers, and Magic among the teams likely to have some interest.

If Smith does opt out of the second year of his contract, the Knicks will have difficulty re-signing him. Even if New York doesn't pursue a big-name free agent, the team may need to use its mid-level exception to retain Jeremy Lin, leaving little to offer Smith, who wouldn't have Bird rights.

When Smith came back from China, most of his NBA suitors could only offer portions of their mid-level or mini mid-level exceptions, meaning he had to sign for a discount to join the Knicks. In 2010/11, Smith earned $6MM+ for the Nuggets. While he may not find a multiyear guarantee that pays him $6MM+ annually, he should at least be able to easily exceed the $2.5MM on his option year.

@CA7: our payroll during the next season is $59.1M which will be or slightly over the salary cap in case it won't be increased or slightly below if it will increase for example to $60M/year. Moreover, we're talking about only 6 players under contracts. Let's say we let Lintendo go and resign JR for our MLE, which means we have no other contracts to offer than vet mins. Looking at available PGs even Dragić is beyond our financial reach. We're going to resign Lin, not only because he brings quality PG skills but also because he makes this franchise earn millions of dollars.

@CA7: our payroll during the next season is $59.1M which will be or slightly over the salary cap in case it won't be increased or slightly below if it will increase for example to $60M/year. Moreover, we're talking about only 6 players under contracts. Let's say we let Lintendo go and resign JR for our MLE, which means we have no other contracts to offer than vet mins. Looking at available PGs even Dragić is beyond our financial reach. We're going to resign Lin, not only because he brings quality PG skills but also because he makes this franchise earn millions of dollars.

We give JR the full MLE and offer Lin the qualifying offer. If Lin is patient he will get his multi year deal. Right now JR deserves the bulk of that money for the work he's put in. I know we NEED a starting pg but Lin is still learning and we shouldn't have to pay for his celebrity.

Exactly, it's basically Lin or JR, personally I'd prefer to offer our MLE to a way above average prospect, especially that he's our first and only point guard option unlike JR who's our second two guard behind Shumpert/Fields. It doesn't make any sense from any standpoint to resign JR over Jeremy. We could also say JR should be patient because we could offer him a much more favorable contract after the 2012-2013 season.

Exactly, it's basically Lin or JR, personally I'd prefer to offer our MLE to a way above average prospect, especially that he's our first and only point guard option unlike JR who's our second two guard behind Shumpert/Fields. It doesn't make any sense from any standpoint to resign JR over Jeremy. We could also say JR should be patient because we could offer him a much more favorable contract after the 2012-2013 season.